Julian Brandt: "We need to become more creative and clearer" | OneFootball

In Thursday's media round, Julian Brandt spoke about tactical formations, the returning players and his personal situation.

Julian Brandt on the sessions at the training camp:"They are just as crisp as they were in the summer. They're not all that long, but very intensive in the moment. We quickly get stuck into a lot of challenges, a lot of intensive sprints, a lot of intensive runs and have played 11 vs. 11 too. It is therefore energy-sapping, but it's also fun in these conditions."

…the returning players:"Fundamentally, the fact they are back does not fill me with optimism yet. It would be nice for now if it stayed that way. We had that number of players at the start of the season too, but everyone knows what happened then. There's a good foundation now. But I hope when we talk at the end of February or the start of March, we still have a group of 28 players."

…his personnel situation:"I'd like to continue from where I left off. I believe that my development has been good but that there is nonetheless still a lot of room for improvement. There are always things you can improve upon. However, it's moving in the right direction; that's important. The objective I've set out for myself this year is to score even more goals. I was slightly frustrated about the fact that I didn't reach double-digits last season. That's my personal aim."

…the reasons for his improved performances:"That's not so easy to answer. People always talk about development. But that doesn't happen overnight; it takes time. In my case, this development has also occurred to some degree. This step where you could see it on the pitch took place over the summer. There wasn't a specific day where I thought: I've now taken a step forward. Lots of things are working a bit better, whether it's with or off the ball. Nonetheless, I'm not at the end of this development. It must now continue."

…the attacking department:"Personally, I don't think we're that far off in attacking terms. I've always had the feeling that we've both had chances and scored goals in almost every game. There have been relatively few games in which we didn't score a goal. After Erling left and Seb was sidelined with illness, we considered: what will now happen in attack? And I think that we've done relatively well. In my opinion, the issue for us was and continues to be creating clearer chances. A lot of goals last season were the result of individual quality. We have to be more creative, but also cleaner. Towards the end of the first half-season, we were losing possession many times going forward and then getting hit on the counter-attack. We need to be clearer in that respect. I'm not too worried about the attack. It's more important that we defend well at the back. We cannot allow ourselves to concede so many goals. We've also addressed this issue."

…a possible 4-1-4-1 system in which he plays alongside Marco Reus:"A 4-1-4-1 is fundamentally an attack-minded formation; everything has to fit. The premise in our first few games should be that you're really solid defensively, that you perhaps have a phase in which you sit tight if you're not on a very solid footing in the game or if the opponent presses you. These are all good teams. They're always capable of having a spell like that. And of course I can envisage playing alongside Marco. He's still an outstanding player whom I really enjoying being on the pitch with, as I do with many other players too. It remains to be seen whether we ultimately try it out, whether the coach tries it out. But I'm also just as unopposed to other formations. We've now played with a 4-2-3-1 often. We've played with a 4-3-3 often. In principle, a 4-1-4-1 system is almost the same. But the important thing at the moment is not the formation, but getting things right from the start: the 11 players that are playing must play solid football throughout the 90 minutes, without there being any kind of wobble and us starting to look nervy again. We must ensure we win our matches."

…meetings and analysis: "We predominantly discuss the things we don't do well. That also includes set-pieces. We've messed up on a lot of set-pieces. We're working on that a lot at the moment, but also on defensive chasing and pressing. We want to make our presence felt through our pressing and want to be active in the game as a result; we don't want to do too much waiting and sitting back. We still need to work on that because we don't have things perfect yet. Of course, we also show each other the things we do well. It's stupid to only talk about negative things. But you can only get better if you sometimes stick your finger into the wound and talk about certain topics. That's the main focus of our video analysis."Transcribed by Christina Reinke